


Set Adrift

by Marvel_Mania



Series: Meet-Cutes [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, M/M, Meet-Cute, Mermaid Bucky Barnes, Pirate Steve Rogers, Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:34:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24450652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marvel_Mania/pseuds/Marvel_Mania
Summary: Steve is a pirate who plays the violin. Bucky is a merman who hears Steve play. After hearing him play the first time, Bucky follows Steve's ship in hopes of hearing him play again.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: Meet-Cutes [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1700515
Comments: 4
Kudos: 139





	Set Adrift

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly have no clue where I got this idea but I'm really glad I found it and wrote this. 
> 
> Thanks to my amazing friends who have to deal with me. 
> 
> As always, I hope everyone enjoys!

Looking around, blue was all that Steve could see. He had been on the ocean for as long as he could remember. He had three memories of his life before he boarded a ship and set sail. He remembered his mother playing the violin to him and teaching him how to play it, he remembered his mother taking her last breath, and he remembered deciding that he was never going to feel that kind of pain again so he had hopped on the first ship he could and never looked back until now.

The years at sea and aboard various pirate ships had done him well. He had been small and frail upon sneaking on the first pirate ship. He didn’t know at the time but he had snuck onto Nicolas J. Fury’s ship, one of the most feared pirates in the world. Assuming that Steve had been a spy, Fury had been read to kill him were he stood but Fury’s first mate, a man by the name of Phil Coulson, had stopped him. “Let’s at least see why he’s here,” Coulson had said.

So, with his life on the line, Steve had explained how he was now an orphan. How his father had died before he was born and his mother had gotten sick and how she hadn’t been able to shake it. Feeling sympathy, Fury hadn’t killed him on the spot but had instead put him to work on the ship. Steve has worked hard and had risen through the ranks quickly because Fury and Coulson trusted him which was an oddity.

The day Fury had prompted Steve to second mate had been a day of joy for the three. They had gone ashore and had celebrated all night long. The day Steve had been moved to first mate was filled with hatred and pain. Some of the crew had decided to try to overthrow Captain Fury. They had been able to keep the ship but Coulson had been mortally wounded. He had been buried at sea, he was laid to rest where he had lived his life.

It was only about a year later before Fury had called Steve into his cabin and told him that he was retiring soon. “I’ve lived a long life for a pirate,” he had said, “and I’ve lost too many good people, if there is such a thing as a good pirate. Unlike you or Coulson, I was born on the sea. My only home has ever been a ship.”

“Sir,” Steve had said with wide eyes, not knowing where this conversation was leading.

“Hush, Rogers,” Fury had snapped. He was still the captain of this ship after all and he damn well earned respect. “I will only be giving orders for a few more days on this ship. We will be dropping this crew off at the next port, sail to New York, and find a new crew. Only, you will be the captain of the new crew. I’ll help you pick out a good one, stay with you for a few months or so, and then get off at a port.”

“What will you do after you leave,” Steve asked. Fury was a hard ass, no doubt about it, but he was also one of the closest things Steve could call a father.

“Maybe settle down, live a quiet life,” he said which earned a disbelieving look from Steve. “Or find a new ship. Help raise the next generation of smart mouth pirates.”

After that, Steve had been dismissed. They had done exactly what Fury had said. Steve now had a crew of his own composed of people he trusted with his life. There had been rumors a few years back that a group called Hydra had done the impossible and killed Fury but Steve knew in his gut that somewhere out there, Fury was still alive and wreaking havoc where he saw fit.

“Captain, what’s our next course of action,” Steve’s first mate, a redhead named Natasha who rivaled Fury in her intimidation, asked.

He and his crew that just raided a royal ship with a musician aboard because he had found a case that brought back too many memories. Against his better judgment at the time, he had grabbed the case along with whatever other valuables he could get his hands on quickly. They were back on their ship, sailing away from the one they had raided but with no real direction.

“Set a course for Spain,” Steve said. They had been up north for too long, his crew would like the warm weather for a short period.

“You heard the Captain,” Natasha barked out, causing most of the crew to scurry to comply. “I’m sure we can get a pretty good sum for the violin.” It was said cautiously. Steve didn’t talk about his past, hadn’t since it spared his life, but Natasha could read people as if she could hear the thoughts inside their heads.

“No,” was all Steve said. She nodded and then walked away to yell at a slacking crew member.

With the case still clutched in his hand, he climbed to the perch that was normally reserved solely for Clint. Once at the top, he looked out and saw only blue. Soon, he carefully opened the case and looked at the instrument inside. It was beautiful, in far better condition than the one his mother had taught him how to play on. Steve was almost in awe for a moment because of the beauty of it. He carefully took it out of the case held it. He tried it, earning a screeching sound in return, and then carefully tuned it.

Once properly tuned, the instrument made a beautiful sound. Steve played his heart out. He played song after song that his own mother had once played for him. It was only once the sun had started to set that he realized how long he had been in the perch. Looking out at the openness before him, he played one final song, the love song that had played when his parents met but he slowed it down and changed the pitch to make it almost heartbreaking, before securing the violin back in its case. With one final look at the instrument, he closed the case and threw it overboard. He threw it as hard as he could and watched it plummet into the water.

He climbed down from the perch and simply went to his quarters. He was starting to understand what Fury had meant. He had been on the sea since he was sixteen, a Captain since he was only twenty-two but the decade and a half at sea felt like a lifetime. He felt old, he could feel an ache deep in his bones that hadn’t always been there. Finding that violin had simply reminded him how old he was. He collapsed onto his bed, hoping a few hours of sleep would help.

The next morning was only slightly better than the night before. The bone-deep ache had lifted a little but not entirely and he still felt so damn old. It didn’t help when he opened his cabin door and found the majority of his crew in a circle near the edge of the boat. They were all whispering, having not noticed their unhappy captain yet.

“What’s the meaning of this,” Steve asked in his captain’s voice. The entire group jumped nearly a foot in the air before parting like the Red Sea. In the center of the group was a case. The case. The case he had thrown into the ocean the night before. “Is this someone’s idea of a fucking joke,” he yelled.

“Sir, the sea threw it back on the boat sometime last night. I think we made her mad,” Pietro said looking at the case warily.

“Barton,” Steve yelled. Clint, who had been watching everything from his perch swooped down and landed in front of Steve but not close to the case. “What happened last night?”

“I, uh, I’m not sure. Last night there was a thud of it being thrown aboard but I didn’t know what it was until the sun rose,” Clint said a little sheepishly.

Steve rolled his eyes. He should have remembered that most sailors were extremely superstitious. It didn’t help when Pietro and Wanda joined his crew considered they came from a long line of gypsies. Steve glared at the crew, picked up the case and threw it back into the ocean. “Now, everyone back to work,” he snapped. Everyone hesitated for a moment and then dispersed.

Steve looked overboard and all he saw was blue. The case was completely gone. He looked down and saw an angry face glaring back at him. It took a lot of self-control not to jump or scream. He simply blinked and then the face was gone. While Steve wasn’t superstitious, he was positive he had just pissed some sea spirit off in some way.

  
•••

  
“Stupid human,” Bucky muttered to himself after he had taken the case. Didn’t the human know that Bucky wanted him to make the music again? He was currently sat on a rock trying to open the stupid contraption. He had been by the ship when the human beautiful sounds coming from up high.

After a few fumbled attempts, Bucky finally got the code open. When it opened, Bucky held his breath and waited for the music to start but nothing happened. He poked it but still the music didn’t play. After waiting another moment, still with no music, Bucky tried to hold it the way the human had but all that earned was a terrible screeching sound that made his ears hurt. He quickly put the object back in its protective shell and closed the stupid thing.

“Stupid human, stupid human device,” Bucky said unhappily. Bucky sulked on the rock for a moment more before he had a strange thought. “Maybe the thing only works for the stupid human that threw it overboard.”

While this logic wasn’t the soundest, it was all Bucky could think of. He could see the ship off in the distance and resolved the get the stupid human to make the beautiful music again.

  
•••

  
After seeing the angry sea spirit, was it a spirit or had Steve’s time on the sea finally driven him mad Steve wondered quietly to himself, Steve was on edge the rest of the day. When the day had passed with no oddities, Steve convinced himself that he had imagined the glaring face but that illusion was shattered that night.

He was in his cabin, trying unsuccessfully to get some shut-eye, when he heard a dull thud on the deck. He jumped out of bed and ran out without even bothering to find a shirt. To Steve’s absolute horror, the violin case was on the deck. It didn’t even look bad, it didn’t look like it had spent the sixteen hours in the ocean that it should have. For a brief moment, Steve considered chucking it back to the ocean but he knew deep down that wouldn’t work. It hadn’t the first two times so why would the third be any different?

He had to do something with it though. If the crew saw the damn thing they would start abandoning ship to get away from the cursed object. Right as he thought that, Clint was next to him looking pale. “Captain, is that,” he asked back he hadn’t been able to finish the question.

“Yes,” Steve said and turned to look completely at Clint, “no one is to know about this. Friend or not, if I learn any other person on this ship knows about this I will see that you are fed to the sharks. Have I made myself clear, Barton?”

Clint nodded mutely and made his way back to his perch. It wasn’t often that Steve had to use his captain voice with his inner circle but this was one of the times. Steve was in charge of the ship and that meant it was his job to maintain order on it. Tales of an angry sea spirit would not help keep order. As much as Steve truly did care for Clint, he needed that this stay quiet. As much as the ship ran on respect, it also ran on fear. Steve had been trained by Fury after all. Steve was known to be merciful and forgiving but he had also made it known that if you disobeyed a direct order there would be consequences that would not be pretty.

Once Steve looked and made sure that no one else had seen the violin case, he carefully picked it up and took it back to his cabin. He hid it as well as he could and decided to trie to forget about it.

  
•••

  
Steve had planned on selling the violin once they got to the nearest port to restock on food and supplies, he really did, but when they got to the port the violin stayed in his cabin.

He knew that he should get rid of it, maybe throw it in a fire since throwing it into to ocean didn’t work, but he now felt like he couldn’t. He felt like it had almost become a part of him, even though he felt stupid even thinking that. The violin reminded him of his mother, the unconditional love she had for him, and it reminded him of his life before he set sail. The longer he was at sea, the fuzzier some of his memories from before boarding Fury’s ship were. He hadn’t put down real roots since New York, a lifetime ago.

Steve hadn’t played it again. Not since that first night. He couldn’t risk his crew finding out that the damn thing was back on the ship but that didn’t stop him from opening the case every once in a while and simply staring at it. One night he had run his fingers along the grain of the wood and the string, he had picked it up as if he were about to play it but then it went back in its case.

  
•••

  
Bucky was pissed. Well, maybe pissed was the wrong word but he was certainly annoyed and unhappy.

Had been following the human ship for _weeks_ (a week and a half but he didn’t care) and the human, he had heard others call him a few names, still hadn’t made the music again. On top of that, the fish tasted funny this far south and he couldn’t find his favorite seaweed and while he had never heard of a mermaid getting burned by the sun he was sure that he may be if he wasn’t careful. He had taken to either hiding under the ship or going as far down as he could while still being able to see the ship. ‘Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad if the stupid human would just play the music again,’ Bucky thought sourly.

He was about to just call it quits, leave the ship and go home, until all hell broke loose apparently. From his spot far under the ship, he saw a commotion going on and then something came plummeting down past him. He could see that a second ship had appeared and it seemed to be attacking his human’s ship. He quickly swam up to see what was going on and his heart sank.

The new ship was attacking _his_ human’s ship but the familiar faces of humans he didn’t know seemed to be winning. His human (when had he started thinking of this human as _his_ human?) had picked good people and they were doing well. Just as the other ship was about to retreat, they made one last wild attempt to take down his human’s ship. He apparently saw it before anyone else and he let out a what most humans would call a scream but was closer to a wail.

An opposing human fired a gun at one of Bucky’s human’s people, a red-haired woman who his human seemed close to, but Bucky’s human, the idiot, also saw what was about to happen and he leaped in front of the other human. His human was shot, he staggered, and then he fell off of his ship. Bucky saw his human’s people become enraged by the grief that was overcoming Bucky.

His human fell to the water but Bucky was there to catch him. Without waiting to see how the battle would end, Bucky grabbed his human and swan in the direction of land.

  
•••

  
When Steve woke up, feeling like hell, he thought for sure he was in heaven or some other afterlife since he wasn’t sure he deserved to go to heaven. He thought his suspensions were only confirmed when he saw an angel. “Must have done something in my life right,” he said and reached up to touch the angel.

The angel looked at him a little oddly but didn’t try to move his hand from his cheek. The angel opened and closed his mouth as if trying to figure out what to say. “You are alive. You are Captain,” he asked softly.

“I’m a captain. My name is Steve,” he said.

“Steve,” the angel repeated.

“What’s your name,” Steve asked.

“Bucky,” the angel, Bucky, said. “You are hurt.”

“Nah, I’ll be okay. I’ve had worse,” Steve said with a lopsided smile. It was then that Steve realized he was alive and the amazing man before him wasn’t actually an angel. Maybe that’s when he was in so much pain. He had been shot, he remembered a little slowly. His ship had been attacked by a royal one and he had been shot while trying to protect Natasha and then he had fallen overboard. He had thought that he was dead because he had been so certain that he was going to die.

Upon looking at Bucky, he realized that he recognized him. Bucky was the anger sea spirit but he wasn’t angry now. He looked almost worried. “I’ve seen you. I’m the water,” he said stupidly.

“I am a merman. I live in the water,” Bucky said.

“You kept throwing the violin on board but why?” Finally, things didn’t exactly make sense but he understood a little better now.

“You made beautiful music. I tried to make it play but it wouldn’t. I wanted to hear it again.”

Steve laughed at that. “All you had to do was ask,” he said with a smile. Bucky made a face as if he had never once thought of simply making his presence known and asking Steve to play the violin for him. “If you get me back to the ship, I’ll play for you.”

Anything would be worth seeing the way Bucky absolutely lit up at the thought of hearing Steve playing the violin for him.

  
•••

  
Most of Steve’s crew is convinced that they are exactly one minute away from being dragged down in a watery death when Steve returns to the ship because they all thought Steve was dead. The rest were simply relieved as all hell that Steve hadn’t joined the other pirates that laid at the bottom of the see. However, even the ones ecstatic to see that he was still in the land of the living were a little freaked out about the merman with him.

“Steve, there’s a mermaid,” Natasha said sounding a little baffled. She wasn’t one of the superstitious types so seeing a merman really threw her for a loop.

Steve nodded and went over to the side where Bucky was still in the water. “You want to come up,” Steve asked. Bucky has told Steve that he could have legs if he were dry when Steve asked.

“Yeah,” Bucky said.

“Someone throw him a rope and get him up,” Steve said and went to his cabin the get the violin and clothes for Bucky. When he got back, his crew was all standing and looking at Bucky. “Alright, the show’s over. If you have something to be doing, do it,” he said in his captain voice.

As if by muscle memory, everyone scattered and got to work. “We’re glad to have you back, Captain,” Natasha said lightly. She kissed his cheek and then went to steer the ship.

When Steve opened the case, Bucky looked like a kid at Christmas. Steve ended up playing until well after the sun had set.

  
•••

  
“Play it again, Steve,” Bucky asked from where he laid on the beach with Peter playing in the sand not far from him. Bucky still acted like Steve’s playing was one of the best things in the world and Peter loved his playing too. Steve simply smiled and did as was asked of him.

After Bucky had saved Steve’s life, he had stayed with them. Sometimes he was onboard and sometimes he was in the water next to the ship but he was almost always in Steve’s, their, cabin at night. They stayed at sea for four more years before Steve retired. They retired to a nice beach a little further North than Steve might have liked but there were still plenty of warm months. Bucky complained that the fish close to and south of the equator tasted funny and who was Steve to argue with that.

Steve had handed his ship over to Natasha with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She had smiled and promised to make him proud. “You already have,” he had said before he and Bucky left the ship. Steve had bought them a small island and turned it into a haven for retired pirates like himself. Even Fury, Steve _knew_ he wasn’t dead, had a hut for when he wasn’t off training new pirates. Some of his old crew occasionally stopped and visited him and Bucky too.

They lived a peaceful life now, happy to lay on the beach or in bed for as long as Peter let them. Peter was a young boy who Bucky had saved during his morning swim. They had learned that Peter had no family so the took him and were raising him as their own. Bucky had learned how to cook and he was good at it too. Steve had bought a fancy new violin upon retiring and played it daily. Bucky and Peter’s favorite song was the one that Steve’s parents had met to and something about that made Steve’s heart swell.

Steve looked at Bucky and Peter with a smile on his face. He never once thought he could be this happy again in his life. Sneaking on a pirate ship at sixteen was the best damn thing he had ever done because now he had Bucky and Peter. He had a family again. He knew that somewhere, his mother and father were looking down at him with a smile.

He lifted the violin and started to play.


End file.
